Friday, September 17, 2010

Automated Target Recognition (ATR) has been making the news a lot lately. You may remember when I discussed ATR back in April of this year. So what in the heck is ATR? It’s software that’s used with Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) and displays a computer generated, generic human image (you've probably heard it referred to as an Avatar) on the monitor attached to the AIT machine. It highlights areas on the image to show where anomalies may exist. It does not display the actual image of the passenger like the current technology does.

ATR provides additional privacy protections and eliminates the need to staff an extra officer in a private room. We’re very interested in this next generation software, but ATR in its current form does not meet TSA’s screening requirements, however, we’re working closely with manufacturers to find a software that does.

It would be a win for us since we won’t have to staff as many officers and it will be a win for passengers who have voiced concerns over privacy. While we’re excited about the potential of this new technology, we’ve just started testing it, so stay tuned for more information at a later date.